Atlanta Hawks owner says he sent racist email in 2012, will sell team (Alpharetta: purchase, college)

[Ant131531]

Atlanta is 10% of the metro population. I'm speaking of metros, not cities, but those cities are still more accepting of blacks. Has nothing to do with 'victim mentality' or I'd be saying no city in America is accepting of blacks.

[DawgPark]

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

Regardless of the racial issues, the Hawks will start making $$ when they start winning championships. Want to sell more merchandise? Play quality high level basketball and win games - playoff games in particular. You think San Antonio (a small market team) makes $$ because Texas is so racially progressive? No. Because they win and they cultivate a pro-basketball culture. Until the Hawks do that, well, it'll be more of the same.

Exactly right. Attendance at Hawks games or Braves or Falcons has ZERO to do w/ race . . . and everything to do w/ winning.

Fans love winners. Win championships and you can sell tickets to anybody. Lose, and you can't give tickets away.

The Hawks haven't won anything of significance, ever. They simply don't exist to the majority of ATL residents, myself included. And I LOVE basketball.

[Carolina Knight]

I have not been impressed with Levenson and the Atlanta Spirit ownership group operating the Hawks. For example, using the then-Thrashers to finance the Hawks' improvement was a bad idea. It created a National Hockey League market void.

[DawgPark]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Atlanta is 10% of the metro population. I'm speaking of metros, not cities, but those cities are still more accepting of blacks. Has nothing to do with 'victim mentality' or I'd be saying no city in America is accepting of blacks.

Granted, I can see the difference in metro vs. downtown in terms of race composition, but it's still way overblown.

Even the Cobb County that the race baiters love to bash is actually around 45% minority. At least 1/2 of the high schools here are majority minority and I dare say, would LOVE the Hawks and buy tickets if the Hawks were winners.

Said another way . . . put Lebron, or Durant, or Kobe on the Hawks, and you'll see plenty of ticket sales, including to white, black, pink, or purple people.

[sedimenjerry]

Atlanta is one of the worst markets when it comes to locals supporting their teams. Winning helps and the Braves were the only ones that were actually good at that until the Falcons got halfway decent with Mike Smith and Matt Ryan. The Hawks could go away and few people in Atlanta would even care. They're never threatening to win a championship.

As for the email, I'm not sure why he self reported. Sounds more like he wants to sell the team and is using this as an excuse.

[Larry X]

Hey dumb ass, how bout getting a super star on the team and getting past the first round of the playoffs, if you want more people to come to the game.

[-thomass]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Atlanta is one of the worst markets when it comes to locals supporting their pro teams. Winning helps and the Braves were the only ones that were actually good at that until the Falcons got halfway decent with Mike Smith and Matt Ryan. The Hawks could go away and few people in Atlanta would even care. They're never threatening to win a championship.

As for the email, I'm not sure why he self reported. Sounds more like he wants to sell the team and is using this as an excuse.

Fixed

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Atlanta is one of the worst markets when it comes to locals supporting their teams. Winning helps and the Braves were the only ones that were actually good at that until the Falcons got halfway decent with Mike Smith and Matt Ryan. The Hawks could go away and few people in Atlanta would even care. They're never threatening to win a championship.

As for the email, I'm not sure why he self reported. Sounds more like he wants to sell the team and is using this as an excuse.

It is not a good year for sports in Atlanta.

The Braves will not make postseason this year. A 4-0 loss to the Marlins is another reason why general manager Frank Wren and hitting coach Greg Walker should be in the unemployment line.

Originally Posted by Larry X

Hey dumb ass, how bout getting a super star on the team and getting past the first round of the playoffs, if you want more people to come to the game.

That is a great idea! It works most of the time when implemented and done properly.

[Miami3]

Originally Posted by LynnHarris

"Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson announced on Sunday that he would be selling his controlling interest in the team, after reporting a racist email he sent in 2012.

The email, which Channel 2 Action News obtained a complete copy of, cites Levenson's concerns that there is a largely black crowd at the Hawks games, and that "the cheerleaders are black." He says in the email that he attributes the crowd to low sales, saying that they do not have a spendable income.

"My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base," Levenson says in the email..."

Full Story: Hawks owner says he sent racist email in 2012, will sell team | www.wsbtv.com

I think this quote said it best by him :

" On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games."

Maybe he forgot he was still operating in 1960's Jawja!

[BradPiff]

Race has always been an issue in ATL sports. You really saw it with Vick when he was with the falcons.

The reality is Atlanta is the black Mecca in the south. Many blacks there are economically mobile and educated, they also like sports and the cost of living there is cheap. So what happens is they attend sporting events. The problem is that no other city in America is like this where you can turn on a game on TV and see the stands filled with black fans. So this is an issue because on the real teams don't care about black fans they want them white dollars. The teams would prefer that the black fans purchase the merchandise and stay home. On top of that the white fans don't want to be around a stadium of black fans. We saw this in ATL when when white fans were celebrating that Vick was gone because the stadium wouldn't be field with black fans.